5 Important Rules for Dating in College

Dating in College
5 Important Rules for Dating in College

Dating in collegeis a great time for personal exploration, and it is also a great time to meet the love of your life, the man of your dreams, or, hey, just some guy that you really like spending time with for right now. While college campuses are teaming with great potential loves, friends with benefits, and future husbands, there are a few important college dating rules that all ladies should be following while on the prowl for a relationship (of any kind!) in college.

1. Prioritize Your Life

Yeah, so you met a great guy during your Intro to Psych class. Perhaps you bonded over your shared hatred of the word correlation. However you two met it doesn’t matter because you are well on your way to a romance. That’s great, but you are going to need to prioritize. You don’t want to find yourself in an assignment avalanche at the end of the semester, or a grade slump simply because you’ve been spending all your time with your new man. Your romance might only last as long as the semester, and you’ll spend another three semesters trying to pull your GPA out of the toilet. Remember to work your man into your schedule, not work your schedule around your man.

2. The Ladies are Important, Too!

A lot of college romances somehow manage to overshadow the friendships that are made during the dating in college years. You can easily meet your husband and your best friend on a collegiate campus, but keeping both can be a bit of a challenge. Remember never to forsake your friends for your new boyfriend. Set up date nights and lady’s nights during the week, and, while it is perfectly fine to do a “group thing” once and a while, don’t have your boyfriend tag along on the adventures you and your girls plan together, it will become annoying, your friends won’t have a good time, and, no matter how many times your boyfriend says he loves shoe shopping, know that he is lying.

3. Stop Overthinking It!

You are a young woman with countless options in the world. There are countless options for potential suitors right on your dorm floor, so don’t overthink your current relationship, and when it starts to go sour, just end it. Seriously, more women waste their time on relationships that are going exactly nowhere fast, because they feel they have to stick it out. In your 20s the only thing you need to stick out is your 3-hour biology lab.

A relationship is supposed to be fun and carefree in dating in college, it should not make you sob in your bed for hours. Again, that is what that 3-hour biology lab is for. So, in short, just stop overthinking it, seriously!

4. Be Safe!

Young adults have a tendency to make poor decisions when they are no longer under the roof of their parents’ home, but bad decisions can have serious consequences. Before you make any decision, stop and think about that decision and the potential ramifications of it. Going home with the frat boy you just met may seem like harmless fun, but remember you don’t know him. You wouldn’t get in the car with a random stranger who offered you a ride, so why would you head out the door with someone you met 30 minutes ago after a few too many kegstands? Be safe, make smart decisions.

5. Don’t Be the Crazy Ex

Sure, this is supposed to be about dating, but how you behave after a breakup is just as important as how you behave during a relationship. When a relationship ends it can suck, and you might be tempted to spend your free time stalking your ex around your campus and ‘accidentally’ running into him. Those “on-purpose accidents” make you look crazy. Ladies, you have your pride, and you should wear it with honor.

Trying to run into your ex constantly, or worse yet, badmouthing him to everyone you run into makes you look crazy. It does not make him look bad, it just makes you look crazy. Stop doing this. Accept that it is over, move on, and start flirting with other guys. It will be the best thing you can do for your broken heart.